Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly has described as astonishing the decision by Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris to double down on the underrepresentation of women in the boys’ club coalition.

Teachta O’Reilly said:

“The new coalition of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Michael Lowry independents got off to the worst possible start last week with women deemed worthy of taking just three of the 15 senior ministries.

“After the deserved backlash against jobs for the boys, the women of Ireland might have at least expected better representation when the lads today named their bloated team of junior ministers.

“Instead, Micheál Martin and Simon Harris astonishingly doubled down on the underrepresentation of women in their boys’ club coalition.

“Despite a record number of 23 junior ministers, just six of them are women.

“So, in total, of the 38 people who now call themselves ministers, just 9 of them are women.

“The opportunity was there for Micheál Martin and Simon Harris to have gender balance in government, but the boys’ club chose not to.

“Fianna Fáil under Micheál Martin in particular appears to have a problem promoting women, with just four women – one senior and three junior – holding ministerial positions.

“The question needs to be asked of Micheál Martin and Fianna Fáil, either they have so few women of talent capable of holding ministerial office, or they do in fact have women of talent but have a party leader holding them back. Which one is it?”